EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
Our outreach program is built around hands-on activities that complement what students learn in class and connect to experimental physics and materials science. Students develop practical skills in technical tools, data analysis, and communication while working on real problems.
Skill Active Learning Lab (SALL)
The Skill Active Learning Lab (SALL) is a space we built for students to learn by doing and to build practical skills. In SALL, students practice with tools such as SolidWorks, OriginLab, MATLAB, LabVIEW, COMSOL Multiphysics, and Arduino-based systems. They also learn fabrication and prototyping through 3D printing and basic machining.
What makes SALL different is that students design and build the experimental setups and low-cost teaching devices themselves. We use those devices in teacher workshops and outreach activities, so students strengthen their technical skills while practicing how to explain and teach what they build. SALL connects student training with outreach, where students learn by making, testing, and teaching.
Workshops and Educational Programs
Using modules and teaching tools developed in SALL, we run hands-on workshops for students and teachers centered on direct experimentation. We offer workshops on topics such as electric circuits, classical mechanics, and data analysis, with activities that can be adapted to different levels.
Educational Materials
Our education and outreach activities have also resulted in published work. This includes peer-reviewed laboratory and teaching articles that introduce low-cost platforms such as Raspberry Pi and Python into physics instruction, outreach efforts that incorporate remote operation of instrumentation for educational use, and instrumentation papers describing student-designed hardware developed within our training pipeline. Selected examples are listed below.
These activities reflect a consistent approach in which student training, instrumentation development, and physics education are closely linked.

RC Circuit Teacher´s Workshop

Free Fall and Pendulum Teacher´s Workshop

Teacher´s Workshop at Hotel Costa Bahia, Guayanilla

Welding Teacher´s Workshop

Basic Circuit Teacher´s Workshop

SPS´s Pendulum and Free Fall presentation
Publicaciones
- Low cost switching circuit for van der Pauw resistivity and Hall measurements at various temperatures.
Viviana Cáceres, Christian Nieves, Christian O Plaza-Rivera, Edwin E Pacheco, Ángel D Reyes-Diaz, Mileidy Varela, Ramón D Díaz, Fernando Camino, and Armando Rúa.
Instrumentation Science & Technology 53, 538 (2025).
.. - Remote Operation of Instruments for Education and Research.
F E Camino, A Rua, D M Piñero Cruz, F E Nieto-Fernandez, A Perez, K Kisslinger, J C Yang.
Microscopy and Microanalysis 29, 2121 (2023).
. - Implementing Raspberry Pi 3 and Python in the Physics Laboratory.
Alexuan Martínez; Christian Nieves; Armando Rúa.
The Physics Teacher 59, 134 (2021).